The Shipley-Hartford Retreat Scale as a measure of intellectual impairment for military prisoners

Abstract

As part of the psychological evaluation of all prisoners at MTOUSA Disciplinary Training Center, the Shipley-Hartford Retreat Scale was administered. According to standardization figures about 25% of the group showed impairment, whereas more than 50% of the prisoners examined at this center obtained conceptual quotients (CQ) below 90, i.e. indicating impairment. Substitution of the AGCT for the Shipley vocabulary test produced CQ's more closely in agreement with the original Shipley norms. Moreover, as the CQ's obtained in this manner conformed to the normal probability curve, the scores above 100 (as many fell above as below 100) could be attributed to chance. And if this condition obtained, the scores below 100 could be interpreted in the same manner. Further evidence for this evaluation was gained through finding that all but 2% of the test scores fell within the limits of the standard error of estimate of the predicted scores. The Shipley test was not a valid test of deterioration for conditions at this center, but was a valid test of intelligence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)